“From its launch, The Daily was a bold experiment in digital publishing and an amazing vehicle for innovation. Unfortunately, our experience was that we could not find a large enough audience quickly enough to convince us the business model was sustainable in the long-term. Therefore we will take the very best of what we have learned at The Daily and apply it to all our properties. Under the editorial leadership of Editor-in-Chief Col Allan and the business and digital leadership of Jesse, I know The New York Post will continue to grow and become stronger on the web, on mobile, and not least, the paper itself. I want to thank all of the journalists, digital and business professionals for the hard work they put into The Daily.”

It’s a shame, but perhaps an unavoidable one. A tablet/smartphone publication might have had a better shot, but restricting readership to iPad owners, and iPad owners only, just cut out too many potential customers. The Daily came out at a time when few other major publications had paid that much attention to their tablet applications, and its native design was a major plus. But other companies had stronger brands built across different media and, ultimately, The Daily failed to develop the necessary critical mass of readership.

I did a small amount of freelancing for The Daily in its early phases – I had a great time working on the stories, and they paid a fair price. But I never knew when to invoice, because I didn’t own an iPad and couldn’t read my own stories without someone emailing them to me. At the time, it struck me as problematic, and now it would appear that having an intentionally restricted audience didn’t do the publication any favors.